Photo shopping...

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...no, not that kind (a roll of the eyes and groans from my kids on that one!). I took my pinholga with me to Monterey Market yesterday. The colorful summer fruit is just too good to pass, photographically speaking...and I wanted to capture it in the store too, since there's never quite *that* volume in my home. Anyway...the camera and film (Fuji Reala, 100iso) performed very well.

I've felt a little disconnected from shooting lately...or would that be from the creative process? I don't know. With a lot of energy going towards scanning and printing previous work for calls for entry, it's not hard for the beginning steps to fall a little from my consciousness. While that's not a bad thing, and certainly natural considering the situation, it's a little disturbing. Then again, things tend to disturb me more in general than the average person! The movement, however, whatever it is, is good. The busy-ness is healthy for me, this I can feel. It's just a matter of getting used to fluctuations...but that's pretty much life in general.

On a different movement note...aikido has been very good lately. Our Thursday classes are currently being taught by one of the senior black belts, and most folks attending (small groups) are brown and black belts. Consequently, we're doing more intensive work, on many levels. While I have a lot of aches and pains these days, it feels SO good to use the body intensively. Not only that, it seems that for me personally, I almost have to get to the point of complete exhaustion (we were practicing multiple attacks on Thursday) to extend my energy fully and encompass the group. It's no surprise to me, that to let go of the *thinking* process (which ultimately slows me down) I have to be fully engaged in the body, and what better way that to feel the breath coming deep and hard and (in this case) the muscles nearly fatiguing to collapse. Maybe it sounds odd, but it felt very, very good.

One of these days I need to take cameras back into the dojo again...